The Conservative Club of East Pasco is welcoming a very high-profile guest to its Sept. 22 meeting in Zephyrhills.
Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera is the scheduled speaker for the group when it meets next week at the Zephyrhills Woman’s Club, at 38549 Fifth Ave.
“We’re excited to have the lieutenant governor coming, but I’m still really trying to get Rick Scott to visit, too,” said Nils Lenz, the Conservative Club’s secretary. Lopez-Cantera is running on the Republican gubernatorial ticket with Scott in November against Democrat and former Republican governor Charlie Crist.
The 40-year-old Lopez-Cantera assumed the duties of lieutenant governor last February following the resignation of Jennifer Carroll.
That means a lot of people may not know much about Lopez-Cantera, especially since the state’s second top spot usually gets overlooked by many in the public.
Yet, this remains the highest-profile guest the local Conservative Club has had in its 10-year history. Next Monday’s meeting is free and open to the public — as long as those who attend are respectful to the Conservative Club’s views.
“Usually we get 30 to 40 people in a regular meeting,” Lenz said. “But we expect to have a lot more than that for this visit. It’s big for the community.”
Since last December, the Scott campaign has raised $7.7 million seeking re-election, compared to a little more than $7 million from Crist. Polls have had both candidates neck-and-neck. Significant advertising — primarily by outside groups — has cast a very negative shadow on both campaigns.
Scott has worked to tie Crist to the economic problems that hit both the state and the county during Crist’s terms, as well as his association with fallen state GOP leader Jim Greer.
Crist, on the other hand, has highlighted the legal trouble Scott’s former company, Columbia/HCA, suffered through in the 1990s, which resulted in a settlement with the federal government costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Crist, whose previous lieutenant governor was former lawmaker Jeff Kottkamp, has picked Annette Taddeo, chair of the Women’s Enterprise National Council’s Leadership Forum.
Before becoming the lieutenant governor, Lopez-Cantera spent eight years in the Florida House, and later became property appraiser for Miami-Dade County. He was born in Madrid, Spain, but moved to Miami soon after he was born.
The Conservative Club meeting is set to start at 6:30 p.m.
For more information on the meeting, or the Conservative Club itself, call Nils Lenz at (813) 782-9491, or email .
Published September 17, 2014
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